


When I Say Shotgun, You Say Wedding

by Milieu



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Developing Friendships, F/F, Family Drama, Family Feels, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Marriage of Convenience, Political Alliances, Toka-centric, Uchiha Izuna Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-04 19:43:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15154283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milieu/pseuds/Milieu
Summary: Hashirama has an idea, which is generally a dangerous thing for Hashirama to do. It's up to Toka to make sure it all works out.





	When I Say Shotgun, You Say Wedding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zenheim](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zenheim/gifts).



> Happy birthday! <3 <3 <3

The seeds are planted in pale early morning sunlight, when Toka creeps out of Mito's bedroom and runs directly into Hashirama.

He looks distracted, as he often has lately, and for a moment he stares not at her but through her. Toka's face heats regardless. She fumbles for an explanation.

"I was-"

"Oh-" Hashirama cuts her off, further irking her. "I didn't see anything. Think I've gone temporarily blind, actually. Very odd."

He's trying to make light of the situation and sweep away the sudden and unexpected tension between them. Toka is too out of sorts to be completely taken by her cousin's good nature as she usually would.

"I suppose that Uchiha blindness might be catching," she retorts. There. Now they both know that the other knows Toka isn't the only Senju to sneak around at night.

"Ah," Hashirama says. He adds nothing more, and his smile is small and wistful. It's an expression that doesn't suit him at all.

The courtyard of their family compound slowly comes alive with the sounds of birds chirping and the wind rustling the plant life. Hashirama's expression remains distant, as though he is deep in thought.

Toka knows what tends to happen when Hashirama has deep thoughts, and she would like to bring him out of it, if only she knew how. He's always had dreams that seemed too big for the world they live in. One of those dreams seems to be coming true before their eyes, yes, but Toka isn't sure if even Hashirama can make lightning strike twice.

Hashirama rouses himself before she can say anything and continues on his way to wherever his aimless morning wander had been taking him, giving her shoulder an absent pat as he passes by.

Toka stays where she is for a while longer, alone in the courtyard as the world wakes up around her, wondering if Mito ever wishes that she would stay so they could wake up together.

\---

The seed finally sprouts days later, when Tobirama snaps Hashirama out of his thoughts by dropping another pile of paperwork on Hashirama's already overfull desk. He can see that the pile Hashirama was meant to be already working on remains unfinished, perhaps not even started. What he can make out of Hashirama's smudged handwriting seems to be an arrangement of names and various lines connecting them. Some parts of whatever the diagram is meant to be have been fiercely scribbled out, but one section has been circled multiple times in evident excitement.

Tobirama doesn't know what it means, but he has a familiar sinking feeling when Hashirama's attention turns to him, and he sees that his brother is beaming.

"I've had a wonderful idea," Hashirama says, and the feeling of doom only increases. "A wonderful idea," he repeats. "Something that will benefit the whole village."

With trepidation, Tobirama asks the question that will open the floodgates. "What do you want to do?"

\---

" _What_ do you want to do!?" Toka is aghast. Gobsmacked. A bit betrayed, honestly. Generally just not at all as enthusiastic about Hashirama's grand idea as he had evidently been hoping.

"It's a show of good faith," Hashirama says weakly. Toka isn't having it.

"I told you I would never get married." That's the crux of the issue, before even getting into just  _who_ Hashirama has decided on. Since they were teens, Hashirama has been one of the few family members who never gave her grief for her declaration. Toka has long held him apart from everyone else in her life as somebody who wasn't just respecting her decisions, but who actually understood. And now he comes waltzing in with  _this_.

"For what it's worth, I never intended to marry either."

That gives Toka pause, forces her to take a deep breath and consider. It's true. The Uzumakis are here for political reasons, not because Hashirama had suddenly found it in himself to know how to act around women. 

Beyond that, it's cold, hard fact that not a single one of Hashirama's relatives would have accepted where his desires were so obviously aimed. Toka can't be sure if even the target of said desires would have accepted it; she expects that a certain somebody has yet to be clued into Hashirama's new big idea.

"Pick somebody else," she says, and immediately hates herself for the faint flicker of a pained expression on Hashirama's face, gone so fast that she would have brushed it off as imagination if she didn't know her cousin so well.

"There is nobody else, Toka."

"There are hordes of Uchihas roaming around. Even if I agree to this scheme of yours -- which I haven't yet, keep that in mind -- do you really think that the rest of the family will approve?"

"I'm head of the family," Hashirama says quietly. It's not easy for him to be quiet. It's discomforting. There is something hard and unshakable that shines through Hashirama when he manages to quiet himself, a feeling akin to the silence that washes over a deep forest when a predator is on the prowl.

Toka wishes that she could only see that hardness, the look of a man who has decided on getting his way and will take no refusal. She doesn't want to look him in the face and see how desperately he is clinging to a dream of peace that might already be slipping away. She's heard the whispers of the arguments occurring in the Uchiha compound, the newly-deposed former family head. A rogue soldier with no war to fight and hardly any clan behind him to lead is all that Madara is now. Where might that urge for war be directed if he is left to his own devices?

Hashirama has always believed the best of people, but he isn't stupid. Even love -- misguided though it may be, if you ask Toka -- hasn't blinded him to the possibilities. There's more to this than the convenience of a cover story, even if it's not political deviousness so much as the desire to save Madara from himself.

"He stole his own brother's eyes," Toka says, still grasping for something, anything, to show Hashirama that this is madness. "He took Izuna's eyes when Izuna could no longer fight so that he could continue leading a war against our clan. You might be head of the family, but do you honestly think that you'll be able to send me into the den of wolves that is the Uchiha compound and receive no resistance from the rest of the clan? From  _his_ clan?"

"Oh!" Hashirama's expression lights with realization, and Toka is afforded just a few seconds of relief and the hope that she has made him see reason before he goes on. "Oh no, I wasn't thinking that at all!"

A tendril of dread not unlike the one Tobirama had experienced earlier curls in Toka's stomach. "Then what  _were_ you thinking?" She can already guess.

Hashirama's smile returns, triumphant, as though this one detail solves all of the other problems present. "I intended for Madara to move into the Senju compound, of course. It will be a wonderful show of solidarity to have representatives of all three of our clans living in one place."

He looks so pleased with himself, so sure, that Toka wants to scream. She can see the logic, such as it is, and she hates it.

Removing Madara from the Uchiha compound will both temper his unstable influence on his own clan and bring him under the supervision of everyone in the village most likely to catch any potential trouble brewing. Joining their clans that had been at war for so long will send a powerful message, even if those doing the joining are a disgraced former clan head and a kunoichi of the Senju branch family; they'll have Hashirama's blessing, and everyone who knows of him respects or at least fears Madara's power enough to give him sway. Bringing Madara to the Senju will mean that Toka won't be sent into a hostile environment. The rest of the clan will be far more likely to agree to that and to the opportunity to keep an eye on Madara at all times.

Bringing Madara to the Senju will mean that Toka won't be sent away from Mito.

If there's any shinobi under the sun that can promise to keep Madara in line, it's Mito. She's the only person besides Hashirama and Izuna that Toka has ever seen look at Madara without a hint of hatred or fear. If Toka agrees to this sham marriage, Mito will agree, and the Uzumaki influence is not to be underestimated.

Toka sighs, and Hashirama brightens. He can already tell that she has given in, and she'd like to smack him upside the head for how much his smile warms her.

"Fine," she says. She can't help but feel that she's signing her life away, as much as she can see Hashirama's reasoning behind it. "But you're the one who has to tell Madara."

Hashirama's expression drops as suddenly as it had brightened. Toka comforts herself with the knowledge that she won't be present when Madara finds out that he's been betrothed without his knowledge or input.

\---

Mito has the decency to not laugh at Toka's predicament. She definitely laughs at Hashirama when he returns to the Senju compound with singed hair and clothes, though.

Toka is tempted to laugh with her until Hashirama informs them that somewhere in between all the fire-breathing, Izuna twisted Madara's arm into agreeing to the engagement.

That night, Mito kisses Toka all over until she forgets the feelings of distress that linger despite Hashirama's reassurances. In the morning, Toka stays in bed with her until well after sunrise.

\---

By the next afternoon, the entire village knows that the approaching wedding has become a dual affair. Within the week, Toka is so fed up with the sudden frenzy of activity, planning, well-wishers, and doubters pretending to be well-wishers, that she is ready to strangle Hashirama for getting her into this mess.

Instead of strangling Hashirama, she slips away when the attention is off of her for once, and she goes to sit atop the cliff face overlooking the village. There, the surroundings are mercifully quiet and free of company. She closes her eyes and basks in the feeling of the wind ruffling her hair, the sun on her face, and the complete and utter lack of anybody asking her what color tablecloths she wants at the wedding.

She still hasn't spoken to Madara face to face, despite the fact that they've been engaged for a week. There was a brief message in his name expressing good tidings, which managed to sound stilted and insincere even on paper. Aside from that, she has caught glimpses of him from afar, always hanging back, never looking her in the eye. She can't even fathom what his true thoughts on the matter might be. She isn't sure that she wants to know.

Approaching footsteps on the rocky soil and the sensation of chakra that it is still ingrained in her to label "enemy" startle Toka out of her reverie and return her feelings of trepidation. When she glances up at the new arrival, wary, she is somewhat surprised with who she finds.

Izuna takes a seat next to her without greeting her or asking permission. Toka doesn't press him for either, and they sit side by side in silence for several minutes. Toka's gaze keeps returning to the thick bandages covering the upper half of Izuna's face, the smooth, shallow dips beneath his brow of the empty sockets hidden by the cloth.

When Izuna finally speaks, his voice is surprisingly soft, and Toka realizes that she has never heard anything but a warrior's shout from him before.

"I would like you to know," he says without preamble, "that I've heard the rumors going around, and they're untrue."

"There are a lot of rumors going around," Toka remarks.

Izuna doesn't beat around the bush. "To give up my eyes was my own idea. Not Madara's."

He says it so frankly. Toka withholds further comment, waiting to see if he goes on.

"Additionally, it was I who urged him to continue the fight against your clan if I died. I can't say with certainty that he would have agreed to a treaty sooner had I not, but all the same..." He trails off and makes a vague gesture with one hand.

Toka watches him for a moment longer. Up close, she realizes that he is younger than she might have thought. Hardly more than a teenager, really. He has a youthful face that will age well, though wearing his hair down out of its usual ponytail lends him a bit of maturity. He resembles Madara more obviously with his hair loose, but he doesn't hold himself the way that Madara does, always primed for a fight. Toka wonders what it says, then, that he was the one who wanted to continue waging war. Had those been Izuna's last words, how much more bloodshed would there have been? Would Madara have ever conceded if Tobirama's aim had been more true, or if Madara's pride in refusing Hashirama's healing abilities had resulted in Izuna's life slipping away?

What would Hashirama have done?

Toka turns away from Izuna's sightless gaze, unsettled. She'll be haunted by the knowledge that it's his eyes looking out at her from Madara's face from now on.

"Why tell me this?"

"Because I know that this display was Hashirama's idea, not yours, and I don't know how willingly you've agreed to it," Izuna says, and then pauses, worrying his lower lip with his teeth as he considers his next words. "And he- Madara, he isn't cruel or without reason. He's no monster, whatever people who don't know him might say. You can't blame him for the things he said and did when we all believed I would die."

And Toka would like to retort that Izuna is biased on that matter, but then, so is she.

"Hashirama thinks that this will fix everything," she says finally. "That if he can keep Madara close enough, everything will be okay, and the village will prosper, and we'll all live happily ever after."

"It won't fix everything," Izuna says with a quiet weariness that Toka understands and feels down to her bones. "But I did my best to convince Madara that it's the right thing to do. He needs distance from the rest of the clan. Leaving will be good for his own sake."

"I suppose you'll be the new clan head?"

Izuna snorts. "Doubtful. It's still in debate, but the elders wouldn't like having someone in charge that Madara could influence. To say nothing of the fact that nobody in their right mind would respect the might of a clan whose leader is the blind fifth son of the main family."

Fifth son. Toka silently absorbs the knowledge that there were three others between Madara and Izuna who didn't live to see peace. It lends a bit of insight into Madara's fierce, almost rabid protection of Izuna. She isn't sure that she likes being able to see things from Madara's perspective.

When she thinks hard enough about it, she can see the parallel paths that Hashirama and Madara walk. It doesn't surprise her that Hashirama would be so desperate to bridge them, even if he wasn't obviously and hopelessly in love with Madara and possibly vice-versa.

"Anyway," Izuna breaks the silence once more, rising to his feet, "I thought it important that I dispel some of the misinformation you might have heard. I'll leave you in peace now."

Toka watches him as he departs. He doesn't move as slowly or carefully as she thinks a blind person should, and after a moment she realizes that he would probably use that assumption to his advantage. Izuna will never be a warrior again, but he  _is_ still an Uchiha. They always have tricks up their sleeves.

\---

After that brief meeting, Toka finds herself noticing just where Madara's gaze is drawn whenever she sees him in a crowd. It's no surprise that she finds him always seeking out Izuna, keeping a watchful eye on where his brother is and with whom he's interacting.

She could tell him that Izuna probably doesn't need the supervision, but that would require striking up a conversation in the first place.

\---

Toka manages to last nearly three weeks into the engagement before Mito stops humoring her.

"You'll have to speak to him eventually, you know," she says as she attacks a particularly stubborn knot beneath Toka's right shoulder blade. Toka is face down in Mito's pillow, bare to the waist with her hair spread everywhere as Mito works out the tension knots in her back and shoulders, and she thinks that it's particularly unfair for Mito to bring this up when Toka is in no position to argue with dignity.

"I know," Toka mumbles, hoping futilely that Mito will let things rest there.

"I've invited him and Izuna to tea, so you'd best begin preparing what you want to say."

Toka squawks her disbelief and betrayal into the pillow, and even when Mito finishes working out her back and tells her with a smile to turn over, Toka doesn't completely forgive her.

\---

The Uchiha brothers arrive at the Senju compound for tea the very next afternoon. A couple of Mito's cousins are in attendance just in case something happens to get out of hand. Everyone sits stiffly and uncomfortably around the kotatsu except for Mito, who is determined to steer things smoothly through sheer force of will, and Izuna, who exudes an air of placid calm to counteract the firm grip he keeps on Madara's sleeve whenever the latter seems about to do or say something untoward.

Toka can only be glad that both Hashirama and Tobirama had other things to attend to. Having Hashirama make eyes at Madara while Tobirama glared at everyone in the room would have pushed the meeting from merely uncomfortable to unbearable.

The conversation is polite and strained. Madara seems to be trying very hard to keep his expression neutral; Toka suspects that it's difficult for him to naturally assume any look other than a glower. She suspects that her own expression is no better. The only person who seems to be getting anything good out of this is Izuna, who has quickly attracted the attention of Mito's cousins and pleasantly accepted their eagerness to assist their blind guest in making sure that he is comfortable and without any sight-related mishaps.

"I'm told that you're quite skilled in falconry," Mito says to Madara.

Madara grunts and nods his assent. Izuna elaborates for him. "We keep a lovely little space for the birds near the compound. They can be temperamental, and a few don't tolerate anyone but Madara handling them most of the time, but they're a joy to watch in flight."

Toka and the Uzumaki cousins shift uncomfortably at Izuna's casual mention of watching things. Madara's expression doesn't change to any degree that Toka can quantify, but she swears that something about him suddenly looks stricken.

Toka has the abrupt urge to comfort him and can only think,  _Goddammit_.

This really isn't the time or place to muse on Madara as a person or the things that Toka knows, suspects, and doesn't know about him. It's all Mito and Hashirama's fault for making her even wonder about those things in the first place.

She wonders if he is feeling anywhere near the same way about this that she is.

"A falconry outing sounds lovely," Mito says, steadfastly ignoring the discomfort that everyone but Izuna and herself is wallowing in.

"It does, doesn't it?" Izuna agrees pleasantly. "The weather is supposed to be very mild for the next week or two. Perhaps we could arrange some sort of group picnic."

Toka meets Madara's eyes for the first time and sees her own resigned expression mirrored in his.

\---

The weather is indeed pleasant and clear, and the picnic has been strategically planned so that Hashirama and Tobirama will once again be otherwise occupied. Mito herds a group of her cousins and a couple of Senju hangers-on out to the grassy plain near the grove of trees which has been co-opted by the Uchiha clan to house their falcons. Izuna and Madara are conspicuously the only members of the clan to show.

Izuna immediately gains another small entourage of Uzumakis and one daring Senju cousin. Mito gives Toka a meaningful look while the others are preoccupied, inclining her head towards the treeline where Madara has busied himself inspecting the birdhouses. Though she is tempted once again to put up a fuss, Toka swallows it and approaches.

She pauses a short distance away, attention caught as one of the larger adult birds swoops down and alights on Madara's gloved hand. It ruffles its feathers, wings extended for balance, before settling down and allowing Madara to stroke down its head and back with his index finger. His lips move as though he is murmuring to it, too low for Toka to hear. After a moment, he turns and lifts his arm, and the bird takes flight once again, spiraling off to become a small black shadow against the bright blue sky.

Toka absently wonders if Madara can communicate with the raptors in the way that some shinobi have that deeper bond forged with certain animals. It would suit him, she supposes.

"Is there something you require?" He asks. He doesn't turn to look at her, instead keeping his gaze fixed on the departing bird.

"An illusion of good will?" She suggests. Madara doesn't so much as twitch.

"Regardless," Toka goes on when Madara doesn't reply, "we won't be allowed to leave until we've acted civil to each other."

"I've been perfectly civil," Madara says, and there's an edge of a childish pout in his voice that is so unexpected that Toka laughs before she can help herself.

Madara does turn to look at her then, just over his shoulder. He looks perturbed, but not yet openly hostile. Toka supposes that might be as good as it gets.

She doesn't want to talk politics with Madara, or about familial duty and familial love (or any other kind of love, for that matter). Madara is standing on the other side of a gulf from the rest of the fledgling Konohagakure, and the only people trying to bridge that gap are his own brother and Hashirama. Perhaps Mito too, now that she's decided to direct her energies towards this. Toka is bound by all of the things that she doesn't wish to speak of, obligated now to lend a hand in building that bridge.

If Madara can only bring himself to be civil, Toka will need to do better and force herself to be _friendly_.

"Show me your birds," she says, amusement still tugging the corners of her lips up.

Madara's brow furrows, and for a moment she thinks he might refuse. For a split second, so quickly that an untrained eye would have missed it, his gaze flickers over to where Izuna is comfortably seated on a blanket, surrounded by his doting helpers.

"You're not wearing gloves," he says flatly, peeling his own from his left hand and offering it to Toka without waiting for a reply. It's too big, but she slips it on anyways. Madara whistles, a sharp, high sound that cuts across the plain and draws the attention of the group sitting nearby. There is an answering cry from the falcon circling overhead.

"Give me your hand," Madara says lowly. Toka extends her arm as he indicates and manages not to flinch away on instinct when his hand encircles her wrist, adjusting her position to allow the descending falcon to land. It is heavier than expected, and it tilts its head to regard her with a bright, distrustful eye. Madara chirps --  _chirps_ \-- to it, making a soft trilling noise that Toka never would have imagined coming from him. The bird ruffles its feathers as she saw it do before, edging back and forth on her hand to find a comfortable space. It turns its head one way and then the other, and Toka sees herself reflected in its eyes.

Toka bites her lips, feeling almost giddy with a sense of the surreal.

Madara is a threat, an unknown, someone that Toka might never be able to look at without also seeing the shadow of a lifelong enemy. But if nothing else, she'll do as Izuna -- blind, scheming Izuna, just as much a question as his brother and twice as dangerous now that nobody views him as a threat -- implored her to do.

If nothing else, she'll do her best to not view Madara as a monster, as much for her own sake as Hashirama's or anyone else's.

It's easier than she would like it to be.

\---

There are other outings, primarily at Mito's behest. Hashirama tags along for some of them, and even Tobirama shows his face from time to time (he and Izuna studiously avoid each other, much to everyone else's collective and unspoken relief). Little by little, Toka tells herself with more confidence that being married won't be so bad, though there are still times when she wants to throttle Madara and Hashirama alike.

As their respective entourages part for the evening after one such gathering, Izuna slips up to Toka's side, as he's been developing the habit of doing. Toka wonders, not for the first time, how much of Izuna's insistent softness is the natural characteristic of a man freed from war and how much is deliberate and calculated.

"Things are going well," he says, tone open-ended as to whether it's a question or a statement.

"Better than expected," Toka admits.

Izuna nods absently. Most of their companions have drifted away by this point, but Toka is quite aware of Mito waiting just out of earshot on one side and Madara doing much the same on the other. The shadows slowly lengthen, and cicadas buzz out in the trees. Toka realizes that she doesn't feel nearly as tense as she would have expected herself to, standing almost alone here on the edge of the village with two disgraced Uchihas for company.

Maybe this is what Hashirama meant when he said peace.

Toka is the one to break the silence between them this time. "I have a question."

Izuna inclines his head towards her, a habit he's picked up in lieu of being able to make eye contact. "What is it?"

"Why did you change your mind about the truce?"

Izuna doesn't answer right away. Finally, he says, "I expected to die. When you're dying, you would think that you don't have very much time to mull things over, yes?"

"I suppose."

"Well," a sardonic humor seeps into Izuna's voice. "It turns out that I didn't die, as you might have guessed. I had already given up my eyes. I had urged Madara to turn away from the hand of friendship that Hashirama offered him." Izuna's hand drifts up to brush his fingers over the bandages on his face, the first time that Toka has ever seen him touch them. "I had much more time to think than anticipated. For a while, I was furious with myself for giving up so easily. Then-" He stops abruptly.

The buzzing of the cicadas seems to grow louder in the absence of Izuna's voice. "Then?" Toka urges him quietly.

Izuna sighs. Instead of continuing right away, he says, "I've always heard that one dies with regrets. I had never thought about living with them."

Toka isn't sure what he means, nor can she be sure that she wants to know. Uchiha Izuna, of all people, seems uniquely able to render her speechless. 

"I had time to think," Izuna finally speaks again. "I had time to wonder about how things could have happened differently." He tilts his head back, turning his face up to the evening sky that he'll never gaze upon again. "I began to wonder... what might have been if I hadn't stopped Madara's hand. He could have shrugged me off, accepted Hashirama's offer. It would have been better for the clan, to end the war there. I-" Izuna's voice breaks abruptly, alarming Toka. He brings one fist up and presses his knuckles against his mouth.

Toka has the urge to reach out and hold him, and for once, she doesn't fight herself. Izuna is stiff and awkward in her embrace, but he lays his free hand against her bicep in acknowledgement.

"Neither of us is fit to lead the clan," Izuna says hoarsely. "We were both too proud. We couldn't let go. I was too selfish to let the war end, and Madara was too shortsighted to ignore me. That's the Uchiha curse, Toka. You love what you love, above all else. You'd let everything else wilt and die. And I can't- if I stand by and let Madara-"

Toka shushes him, at once very aware of both Mito and Madara again, just far away enough to misjudge what is going on if either comes any closer. Izuna shakes his head against her shoulder.

"It would be all my fault," he says hoarsely. "The collapse of this village and Madara destroying himself- all because of me."

Toka doesn't argue, because she can't. She doesn't solely blame Izuna -- Madara is his own person, after all -- but she won't deny him his insight.

When Izuna eventually calms himself and pulls away from her grasp, twilight has well and truly fallen. "Do you know," he says softly, "there are times that I still despise being in your debt. I despise myself for allowing it and telling Madara to allow it. But in the end..." He pauses, considers. "No. From the very beginning, Madara and Hashirama have held the same dream. That's what I believe. And that dream will only be realized if our clans can learn to coexist. So I'll tell you this once and once only, Senju Toka:

From the very bottom of my heart, thank you for your duty and your compassion."

And with that, Izuna steals away into the final fading rays of light to where Madara waits for him. Toka remains where she is, half-stunned, until Mito comes to retrieve her.

She slips her hand into Mito's as they walk back, answering all queries only with a shake of her head.

For the first time, Toka understands what Hashirama must feel, what he's always felt, staring out from the clifftop at the valley where he intended to build a sanctuary for all of them.

She can't fail them all now. No matter what happens, she won't allow that dream to collapse before it can put down its roots.

\---

The wedding day arrives, and Toka can only wonder whether it will be Madara or herself who first snaps and starts murdering guests.

Mito, as always, is Toka's saving grace. She is a vision of unparalleled beauty in her wedding kimono. Toka makes no attempt to conceal her adoring gaze, and Mito's soft and brief touch on Toka's wrist as she passes by imparts both reciprocation and reassurance.

Madara looks fantastically uncomfortable in formal wear, and is equally unsubtle in craning his neck to keep his eye on Izuna at all times. Toka follows his gaze to where Izuna is busy getting fawned over by several adoring Uzumaki cousins and a small but growing number of braver Senju. She snorts and leans in close to talk to him in a low voice.

"He'll be fine," she says. Madara grunts at her, and Toka pats his arm with something that could almost become fondness, given enough time.

Maybe, just maybe, they'll all have enough time after all.

The nice moment is ruined when some Senju auntie wanders by and squeals about what a handsome couple they are, and Toka has the horrible realization that someday far too soon, some unlucky fool is going to ask when she plans on having Madara's children.

Almost miraculously, the ceremony itself is carried out without incident, though Toka is very aware looking into Madara's eyes that they are both his and not his. He looks away first.

Hashirama looks over at the both of them with an expression so overflowing with warmth that it's almost embarrassing. Madara looks away from that too, face reddening as he scowls, and Toka just barely suppresses a laugh.

Gods help this man, forced now to live somewhere where people will actually show him affection and keep him from isolating himself in his suspicion and surliness. Toka wonders if he'll survive.

\---

The first night of their honeymoon is a rainy one, and Madara prowls about like a caged animal, pacing from one end of the bedroom to another. They've finally escaped the merriment which carried on long past nightfall, but Hashirama and Mito are still entertaining a few straggling guests.

Ah, well. Toka has been considering Madara's desperate need for a hobby besides fighting and falconry anyway. She's not about to endure constant grouching and cabin fever when the rainy season is upon them and he's forced to stay indoors.

"Sit down," she says, soft but commanding, and Madara turns on heel to fix her with a forbidding stare. Toka stares back, unmoved, and indicates the Go board and pieces that she has set up. "Sit down," she repeats, "and I'll teach you how to play."

Madara remains where he is, muscles coiled tight and ready for conflict, but Toka remains still and firm, envisioning the way that Mito holds herself when faced with an adversary. It's only a matter of time before he irritates her enough for a spar to be necessary, but the time isn't tonight.

Eventually, he huffs and sits across the board from her, and Toka begins her instruction. By the end of the first match, Madara is invested. By the end of the third, he's hooked. They play well into the early hours of the morning, and by the time they finally retire, Toka is almost shocked to realize that for the first time, she's actually enjoyed herself in his company.

\---

It becomes routine for Toka and Hashirama to silently pass each other in the courtyard, Hashirama making for the room that Toka has just vacated and vice-versa.

Every so often, Hashirama extends his hand as they brush by and links his fingers with Toka's. He squeezes, briefly but firmly, and then he's on his way again and she on hers, to pass another peaceful night in pleasant company.

**Author's Note:**

> Izuna and Mito are the backbones of this household tbh.
> 
> The original idea for this was actually a lot more comedic, but I got to thinking about what would be needed to motivate Madara to agree to such an arrangement, and of course that in turn brings up Izuna's role in the warring clans conflict. Had he survived, I think Izuna would have needed certain circumstances to acknowledge that he loved his brother more than he hated the idea of truce with the Senju, and that Madara really seriously needed some guiding hands to keep him from going down a path of self-destruction once the purpose in life that he was raised to fulfill (ie war, forever) was taken away and he lost the rest of the clan's trust thanks to his paranoia and aggression.
> 
> Aside from that, I wanted to take the opportunity to better fill out some characters who get largely neglected by canon (Toka and Mito especially, but Izuna also lacks much substance on his own outside of his death being the first step towards Madara's downfall).


End file.
